In the operation of Public Switched Telecommunications Networks (PSTNs) Recent Change Memory Administration Centers (RCMACs) take service orders from business offices in response to customer calls and populate those service orders with the services requested by customers. Errors or delay in this processing result in customer complaints. One of the problems with the installation and activation of new services is the fact that the service must be activated both at the switch and also at a separate multi-services platform used to implement the service. This increases the possibility of error. While an older Central Office Verification System (COVS) has been available to aid in this process, that system has proven to have numerous shortcomings in the current multi-functional, many faceted service environment. Prior patents describe systems and methods to purportedly deal with generally related aspects of the overall problems.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,736,405 issued Apr. 5, 1988, to Tadahiko Akiyama deals with the problem of the proliferation of new telephone services such as speed dialing, call forwarding, etc., and the problem of familiarizing users with the methodology for using such services. The patent describes a proposed system for overcoming this difficulty by providing a switching system for identifying the kind of service requested by the user and then teaching the user through voice message the operating procedure including the sequence of operations in a step by step interactive manner even in the case where the user has no preliminary knowledge regarding the operations. The system provides sentences, clauses and words to guide the user through a procedure. Such information is stored in a voice data file that furnishes a voice synthesized speech to the user.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,785,408 issued Nov. 15, 1988, to James T. Britton et al. pertains to a touch tone telephone that can access business computer systems for a variety of customer services. This requires that an engineered dialogue be created to control the interaction of the end user and the system. Each dialogue content must be custom-designed. The patent describes a method wherein the system designer can create various systems for interactive voice service. This is achieved by having the designer select interaction modules from a group of predefined interaction modules, each module defining one of the possible functions which can be performed by the system and sets for the specific method for interconnecting these modules. These modules control the intercommunication between the various voice services and the selection of two or more of these modules implement the desired dialogue program. The architecture of the system is shown in FIG. 1 which includes the dialogue information. FIGS. 2-24 constitute flow charts that depict the process in selecting the modules to provide the voice dialogue information.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,993,062 issued Feb. 12, 1991, to Eric S. Dula et al., pertains to a system to provide a control capable of disconnecting and connecting multiple telephone lines to central office telephone equipment at predetermined times. The control system includes monitoring circuitry for monitoring the telephone line to identify predetermined signals. Circuitry is provided for generating voice messages for transmission on the telephone line such as notifying the user of the amount of time left on the call and for storing call information including user identification. FIG. 1 shows the architecture of the system. The operation of the system is shown in the flow chart FIGS. 2-4.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,922,514 issued May 1, 1990, to Lawrence E. Bergeron, et al., specifically deals with the dispatch of resources such as service engineers to remote sites. The system and method of the patent deal with the identification of locations requiring the resources, the proper selection of resources for assignment to the identified locations, and communication of the assignment to the selected resources. A typical example is stated to be a dispatcher for a radio-dispatched taxi fleet. The system includes apparatus for receiving alarm signals, preferably over the telephone network, from remote sites and a database of resources designated for each of the sites. The database is defined as a memory device, such as a random access memory, hard disk, etc., for storing information relating to a particular subject. The system also includes a controller which identifies a particular site in response to an alarm signal from that site, accesses the database to determine an ordered list of resources (engineers) designated for that site, sequentially attempts to establish in the listed order, communications with the resources designated for the site, and cyclically continues to attempt to establish communications until communications are established with one of the resources designated for the identified site, or until the occurrence of some other predetermined event.